Oracle Database Overview

Oracle database is a collection of data treated as a unit. The purpose of a database is to store and retrieve related information. A database server is the key to solving the problems of information management. In general, a server reliably manages a large amount of data in a multiuser environment so that many users can concurrently access the same data. All this is accomplished while delivering high performance. A database server also prevents unauthorized access and provides efficient solutions for failure recovery.

Oracle Database is the first database designed for enterprise grid computing, the most flexible and cost effective way to manage information and applications. Enterprise grid computing creates large pools of industry-standard, modular storage and servers. With this architecture, each new system can be rapidly provisioned from the pool of components. There is no need for peak workloads, because capacity can be easily added or reallocated from the resource pools as needed.

The database has logical structures and physical structures. Because the physical and logical structures are separate, the physical storage of data can be managed without affecting the access to logical storage structures.

The section contains the following topics:

•Overview of Oracle Grid Architecture

•Overview of Application Architecture




Overview of Oracle Grid Architecture

Grid computing is a new IT architecture that produces more resilient and lower cost enterprise information systems. With grid computing, groups of independent, modular hardware and software components can be connected and rejoined on demand to meet the changing needs of businesses.

The grid style of computing aims to solve some common problems with enterprise IT: the problem of application silos that lead to under utilized, dedicated hardware resources, the problem of monolithic, unwieldy systems that are expensive to maintain and difficult to change, and the problem of fragmented and disintegrated information that cannot be fully exploited by the enterprise as a whole.

Benefits of Grid Computing Compared to other models of computing, IT systems designed and implemented in the grid style deliver higher quality of service, lower cost, and greater flexibility. Higher quality of service results from having no single point of failure, a robust security infrastructure, and centralized, policy-driven management. Lower costs derive from increasing the utilization of resources and dramatically reducing management and maintenance costs. Rather than dedicating a stack of software and hardware to a specific task, all resources are pooled and allocated on demand, thus eliminating under utilized capacity and redundant capabilities. Grid computing also enables the use of smaller individual hardware components, thus reducing the cost of each individual component and providing more flexibility to devote resources in accordance with changing needs.

Grid Computing Defined

The grid style of computing treats collections of similar IT resources holistically as a single pool, while exploiting the distinct nature of individual resources within the pool. To address simultaneously the problems of monolithic systems and fragmented resources, grid computing achieves a balance between the benefits of holistic resource management and flexible independent resource control. IT resources managed in a grid include:

•Infrastructure: the hardware and software that create a data storage and program execution environment

•Applications: the program logic and flow that define specific business processes

•Information: the meanings inherent in all different types of data used to conduct business

Core Tenets of Grid Computing Two core tenets uniquely distinguish grid computing from other styles of computing, such as mainframe, client-server, or multi-tier: virtualization and provisioning.

•With virtualization, individual resources (e.g. computers, disks, application components and information sources) are pooled together by type then made available to consumers (e.g. people or software programs) through an abstraction. Virtualization means breaking hard-coded connections between providers and consumers of resources, and preparing a resource to serve a particular need without the consumer caring how that is accomplished.

•With provisioning, when consumers request resources through a virtualization layer, behind the scenes a specific resource is identified to fulfill the request and then it is allocated to the consumer. Provisioning as part of grid computing means that the system determines how to meet the specific need of the consumer, while optimizing operation of the system as a whole.

The specific ways in which information, application or infrastructure resources are virtualized and provisioned are specific to the type of resource, but the concepts apply universally. Similarly, the specific benefits derived from grid computing are particular to each type of resource, but all share the characteristics of better quality, lower costs and increased flexibility.

Infrastructure Grid Infrastructure grid resources include hardware resources such as storage, processors, memory, and networks as well as software designed to manage this hardware, such as databases, storage management, system management, application servers, and operating systems.

Virtualization and provisioning of infrastructure resources mean pooling resources together and allocating to the appropriate consumers based on policies. For example, one policy might be to dedicate enough processing power to a web server that it can always provide sub-second response time. That rule could be fulfilled in different ways by the provisioning software in order to balance the requests of all consumers.

Treating infrastructure resources as a single pool and allocating those resources on demand saves money by eliminating under utilized capacity and redundant capabilities. Managing hardware and software resources holistically reduces the cost of labor and the opportunity for human error.

Spreading computing capacity among many different computers and spreading storage capacity across multiple disks and disk groups removes single points of failure so that if any individual component fails, the system as a whole remains available. Furthermore, grid computing affords the option to use smaller individual hardware components, such as blade servers and low cost storage, which enables incremental scaling and reduces the cost of each individual component, thereby giving companies more flexibility and lower cost.

Infrastructure is the dimension of grid computing that is most familiar and easy to understand, but the same concepts apply to applications and information.